Catalan leader struggles to keep his job

The president of Catalonia’s pro-independence government failed Thursday in his second attempt this week to secure another term in office, and warned that the region’s bid for secession from Spain risked paralysis if the Generalitat remained leaderless.

Artur Mas, who is seeking a third term in charge of the northeastern region, won September’s election at the head of separatist coalition Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) but fell short of a majority, forcing him to rely on the support of a small hard-left party.

Although the 59-year-old Catalan leader on Monday pushed through the regional parliament a controversial resolution which tried to set in motion an 18-month plan to set up a republic, he has since failed twice to get the assembly to anoint him as president.

There will be no tears shed for Mas in Madrid, where Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy responded to Monday’s breakaway vote by asking the Constitutional Court to block the resolution from Barcelona, which it promptly did on Wednesday.

“Every day that passes is a lost day for Catalonia,” Mas told the 135-seat regional parliament Thursday, where he fell two votes short of the simple majority of 64 that he needed to secure a third term.

On top of the votes of all 62 Junts pel Sí delegates, Mas had hoped for at least two votes from the far-left Canditura d’Unitat Popular (CUP). The CUP shares Mas’ goal of breaking with Spain but has much more radical policies, including opposing membership of the EU, the euro and NATO, and refused to support Mas in Monday’s first plenary debate to elect a new president.

Mas, who is acting president of Catalonia in the meantime, said that without agreement on leadership the whole independence process “risks getting stuck.”

“It seems you don’t want to separate from Spain, but from Rajoy and his Popular Party” – Inés Arrimadas, Ciudadanos party.

“There is still time, but not much. We need to resolve this in the coming days,” said Mas, who tried in vain to offer the CUP a compromise under which, as junior coalition partner, it could hold a confidence vote on his performance after 10 months.

The CUP complains that Mas lacks credibility in the fight against corruption and is highly critical of cuts in social spending under his leadership of Catalonia, in which time the whole of Spain has suffered a severe economic downturn.

“We need to do these things right,” said Antonio Baños, the leading delegate of CUP, who did not completely rule out backing Mas in a third attempt at investiture, which could take place next week.

Junts pel Sí and CUP must agree on a president before January 10, otherwise Catalonia will face new elections.

Spain’s King Felipe added his voice Thursday to calls for respect for Spanish sovereign unity, as enshrined in the constitution.

Spain “is not willing to accept that someone questions its unity, which is the basis of its coexistence, peace and liberty,” said the king. “The constitution will prevail, there is no doubt.”

Felipe’s father won the lasting admiration of his compatriots in 1981 for defending Spain’s fledgling democracy from a coup attempt by members of the Guardia Civil, a militarized police force.

The separatists swore to defy Spanish institutions, including the Constitutional Court, in their resolution on Monday. But they face opposition not just from the court and the king, but also the country’s main political parties: Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party (PP), the main opposition Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE),center-right Ciudadanos (Citizens) and the left-wing Podemos (We Can).

The anti-independence parties attacked Mas in Thursday’s debate, with Socialist Miquel Iceta accusing him of “seeking his investiture at any price” and Inés Arrimadas of Ciudadanos saying he had no valid arguments that Catalan businesses or citizens would benefit from breaking with Spain.

“It seems you don’t want to separate from Spain, but from Rajoy and his Popular Party. That is something on which I agree with you — but let’s do it in the December general elections,” she said, referring to the national elections on December 20 when Rajoy’s PP risks losing its majority in the Spanish parliament — unless he can leverage the uncertainty created by events in Catalonia.

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Franz

Catalonia’s separatists are beyond ridiculous. They do not have enough popular support, they do not have the law behind them, they do not have EU support… they have nothing.
In addition to that, they are now accepting the conditions of and extreme-left party who declares itself as anti-EU, anti-capitalist, anti-NATO…
In what world do these separatists think, that the EU will accept them in the Union if they secceed from Spain? Are they out of their minds? Do they really think that the world will accept their folly?
Nationalists have always though themselves special, over the law, with a almost divine right to do as they please… but eventually all nationalists hit the brik wall of reality.
If Europeans had forgotten how irresponsible, and dangerously out of its mind nationalism has been historically, Catalan separatists are doing a very good job reminding us…

Posted on 11/13/15 | 10:48 AM CET

paleocon666

There is a confusion in terms. They are not nationalists. European Nationalists do not want to fill their countries with Islamoafricans. They are anti-Spanish bigots.